Monday, April 27, 2009

Temple of Ahn'Qiraj

I have been holding back on posting this, hoping to get some screenshots, but sadly it has been a day and it will be desperately old news if I keep waiting, so sorry guys, no screenshots this time. Lesson learned however; take your damned screenshots ;)

I went into this raid with mixed feelings. Not too long ago, we downed Ragnaros without too much difficulties and I felt confident about myself and my fellow guild members. However, I had read up on this instance before and new it would not be as easy. It maybe puts things into perspective if you remember that, back in the days of the old school game, pre-BC this raid was considered to be a raider's pinnacle.

Only when the original Naxxramas was published, did it take a second place. When it became available, the last boss, old god C'Thun was considered impossible to down with the current level of gear. The first kill was registered only after a series of hot fixes and I can easily understand why.

We numbered around ~20 in the raid, average level was 80, though maybe a fourth hovered between 70 and 80. Most bosses were not a big challenge. There were naturally some fatalities and even a wipe or two along the line. However, in our defense, the wipes were primarily a matter of accidental pulls, when we weren't ready yet.

The dungeon itself is beautiful and full of atmosphere, playing well to the alien mood that permeates everything in the menacing silithus corridors and caverns. The bosses are all slimes, insects or aberrations beyond description and, in my opion, very well executed. On complexity scale, the instance easily rivals with Naxxramas and even modern Ulduar.

Our raid hit a hard deadend at the Twin Emperors; third boss before C'Thun. We simply lacked the classes and numbers to take the down and the hour grew late, we called it for the night. However, strategies and battle plans are being draw as we speak and our determination is resolute; the ancient god will be put to death eventually and now we have a week to prepare for the challenges ahead.

For me, raids are all about the challenge of defeating any encounter that it holds and the satisfaction, when you have successfully executed a strategy and the boss goes down, is intoxicating. The challenge of the twins is fascinating to me because it is less about our gear level (like most encounters are in modern raids) and more about the exact balance of classes and raid size.